well, i’ve kind of finished this one, but i’m not marking it as done. there are still a few small details to work out before i can say “i’m done” and say what it is.
all i can say that last night was a HUGE step forward, and it may only be a matter of days or weeks before it is completely done
i think setting a lot of short term goals is a much more efficent method to actually getting it done (as long as you set another soon after you finsih one). the long term stuff that 43things is good overall, but hoping to finish something 200 or more days in the future isn’t really going to motivate you.
that being said, i set my own STG. i just started my spring break, and i want to type at least 20 pages (it will be about 60 pages in a book, or about 1/8 of my total novel) before i go back to school in eight-ish days. i already have three down.
so i really haven’t written anything in a few days (i ended in the middle of a chapter as well), but i just used part of what i wrote to ask a girl out to Prom. i included a little section at the end of it that is a discussion between me and her over going (in narrative). then, i spaced out and just wrote, “fill in the blanks, will you go to prom with me?”
she said yes
well, i took a long break from my novel, but i just recently got back into writing it. right now, based on the outline i wrote up before i started, i am 1/3 done with it! i just dropped it off at my friend’s house (she’s an expert editor) to look it over and tell me what she thinks.
the only problem is that one of the three main character sets is completely stagnated. i have no idea what to have them do. the other two sets are great; easy-flowing, interesting narrative. but the third set (a french-canadien father and daughter), there is nothing i can think of doing with them.
i have seriously considered killing off eevry character in my novel, and that will probably happen more or less by the time i’m done (i might leave one or two alive…). this is not me being cynical like usual, but more what i feel would happen. right now, the deaths include: assasination (i’m really excited to write this part), killed in battle, car accident, technical failure of some kind (airlock possibly?), and a few others.
for now, my novel will be on hold until either my friend gives me back the first third or this thursday (whichever comes first). i will have a lot more time to write now, because my senior status has been steadily solidifying to the point where i have homework for maybe two classes. plus, i am also working less because of track. that should give me enough time to finish the next third (which includes a lot of action) before i graduate. now if only i knew where i was going to college…
some people have been guessing at what my goal is (family, friends, co-workers), and it’s been hard to keep hiding it. but, i will have to hind it for maybe four more months before i might actually be able to work on it
my current writing situation has just become more confusing. the knowledge about my novel is out, and everyone wants to be a character in it. i do need a lot of characters, except that some of my friends and coworkers odn’t fit into what i want in my story. i do use some of their traits, but almost no one is 100% someone.
i have also been backlogged by homework (never take six academics second semester senior year), and as such my writing has fallen by the wayside. it seems the only way i can write is either during my math class or by going to work when i’m not working and just sitting for a couple of hours and writing (because there are less distractions).
i desperately need my own writing place, and i actually cleared off the floor of my closet in hopes of sticking a desk or something in there. i really just need some time to write (138 days until my personal goal expires)
i think the hardest part of this goal is finalizing it. i usually write when i don’t have access to a computer, so almost all of my story has first been written during math class or on car rides. what is keping me back is that i need to type it all up, but also that my writing is extremely messy. i guess that is not a big of a problem, since i change what i’ve already written anyway, but the fact that i am actually writing two stories, albiet similar, is frustrating. i don’t have enough time to sit in front of a computer and type (since i don’t have my own laptop), and that is a big problem.
hopefully i can work around this, and possibly just stay p later each night after work and homework and just type.
it’s been hard to accomplish, but i think i am inching closer and closer. if only a couple things could happen to help speed it along…
i am definitely looking forward to finishing this
using the new feature, i was hesitant at first to set any kind of deadline. i settled on june 15 (a mear 153 days in the future), which should give me enough time to finish my rough draft, and possibly some editing. it will take a lot of work [i have less than a quarter done now (about 50 pages or so)], especially with all my school work. thankfully finals are over and i have a three-day weekend with no distractions (my friends are all out of town) to write a lot (hopefully another section).
no one has read more than the first page (besides one person, but they only read one page in the middle), so i have no critism to work off of. i feel that that is a good thing, since no one can then tell me what they want or think i should change. i still want to keep it my novel, now until i finish.
after sorting out a few affairs in my life, i wrote a couple of pages while sitting in a booth at my job [i was off and my friend was on, so she waited on me while i wrote and explained my story to co-workers and their friends, and i left a huge tip (164%, but my bill was only $6)]. i actually gave some of my characters believable back-stories, like the death of the french-canadien father’s wife, and the american post-college man’s pre-lunar years.
once again my life influenced my writing. i’ve decided to slowly, at first, kill off (quite literally) one of the characters that i based on my now-ex-girlfriend. i’ve also “stolen” some events from my frined’s lives (and my own) to use directly in the story. i know already that they will be able to tell where i got them from (i even wouldn’t allow my co-worker friend to read some of my newest work, because the character based off of her is 1. the love interest of the character based off of me, and 2. it’s EXTREMELY easy to tell that the character is based off of her.
i don’t know if i can even let my friends read it while i’m still in school. hopefully i will have at least a completed rough draft before heading off to college (yet i am still waiting to hear back from four schools. those ivy’s waiting until spring and giving me grey hair!), but that will take a lot of writing (possibly another 140 pages typed, 10 pt, single sapced, just the way i like it).
i could motivate myself by saying that i want to send it off to Tor Publishing (a sci-fi publisher that carries two of my favorite writers: Ben Bova and Orson Scott Card) before i leave in august/september. i feel like i could have it out before i even graduate high school, especially since second semester will be a breeze compared to first (still four AP’s, but a lot less work). plus, i will not have as many distractions to my writing.
i can only hope for the best, as the war for the moon escalates to a new high…
I’ve been meaning to get rid of the ball and chain since before Christmas, but I finally got around to it. It was such a relief today, because it was my first full day of being single! (I broke up with her after school Friday)
i thought that having christmas break off would give me plenty of time to write, but i was wrong. i havn’t written a single word in a couple of weeks, but that’s not what i’m writing about. i just introduced a new character, and to give her more realism i’m using events from some of my friends. hopefully this will help develop her character (and the “main” one that primarily interacts with her) and carry the narrative
today during my jewelry/metalsmith class, i was trying to write more, but my classmates kept interrupting me. however, this was a good thing because they were genuinely interested in it. no less than a dozen asked me at different times if they could see my actual manuscript and the outline i wrote up. most (if not all) wanted to be in the book, though most weren’t as extreme as a request for Kaliskyville as a name of a colony. that kind of motivation helps so much, and it is especially gratifying when people are interested and you can base your story on things happening in your own life (besides the fact that it makes writing easier)
when i found this site, i had already finished “section ii” (i put that in quotes because i don’t know how i’ll devide it up yet), but i’ve been stalled because of school and all my ap classes. it’s a near-future sci-fi novel set on primarily the moon in various colonies and follows (currently) three storylines
